memory's smell?

Title

A Smelly Memory Test

Broad Question

Does Smell Affect Memory?

Specific Question

Do different smells affect memory differently?

Hypothesis

It is hypothesized that the cinnamon apple smell will affect memory the most, and the citrus smell is the worst smell that we are going to test.

Graph of Hypothesis

Hypothesis Graph

Variables

Independent Variable: Type of scents in the air, How much scent is in the air

Dependent Variable: How many matches there are after the minute is over

Variables That Need To Be Controlled: Which scent is in the air, Different kind of memory cards used.

- The same cards each time
- The same place
- The same time

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General Plan

I am going to use two test subjects to play a memory game in a room of different scents.

Potential Problems And Solutions

Not being able to be i the same room while doing more then one scent.

Safety Or Environmental Concerns

If the student is allergic to the chemicals in the scents

Experimental Design

(add the correct headings from the experimental design page before beginning)


a deck of cards
a place to use
4 different scents
2 different people

The experiment will be tested in the bottom floor of Maggie Bennett’s house. I will lay the cards down on the ping pong table and put a scent in the room. Put a chair behind the cards and bring in the test subject. Tell the person that they will have 1:00 minute to try to memorize as many possible. After the minute is over, tell the person to get up and face away from the cards. Flip over all the cards. BE SURE TO NOT MESS UP THE ORDER OF THE CARDS WHILE FLIPPING. Tell the test subject to come back to the table. Tell the person that they will be timed to see how long it takes them to find all the matches. Have the tester put the matches in piles outside the rows. When done record time in Google docs.

Resources and Budget Table

Grant's Super Shop and Save

Detailed Procedure

1.The first step is to get three different scented products,Lysol disinfectant spray vanilla, fresh white musk, febreze, and Carpet Fresh. It is easy to find these sprays at Walmart in North Conway.


2. Select two adults from Bartlett, in like 40’s to be the subjects in the experiment. They can’t be allergic to anything in the sprays.


3.The room used is the cellar of the Bennett family house.


4.Get Memory cards for testing the subjects. The easiest thing to use is to get a deck of cards. Match up Ace’s King’s Queen’s Jack’s 10’s etc.


5.To make the room smell, spray hold finger on button for 10 seconds and walk around the area used. Use a zigzag motion while walking.


6.The deck of cards should be set up in rows 6 by 4 and there should be two that don’t have a row. Have the subject try to memorize as many matching pairs of cards as possible in one minute. The tester is NOT allowed to see the cards once the time is over.


7.After the minute is over, have the subject look away from the cards. Flip over all the cards.


8.Say to the test subject “You will have as much time needed to try to find all the matches. You can only flip over two cards at a time. If the cards don’t match flip them back over and try again. If you find a match keep the cards flipped over and move them of to the side.” After two minutes, count how many matches the subject has gotten.


9. For the no-smell test do the same thing but without spraying the fragrance in the air, repeating steps 5 and 6 for each test subject.


10.Select a second fragrance and repeat steps 5 and 6 for each test subject.


11. Select a third fragrance repeating steps 5 and 6 for each test subject.


12.Make a spreadsheet in google docs and record the times the subjects got with different sprays.


13. Compare different scents to other scents.

14.Thank the testers for being guinea pigs in the experiment.

Data Table

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Data Analysis

Graphs

Data Graph

Photos

Memorizing the Cards

Trying to Find Matches

Also Trying to Find Matches

Results

The average matching time for the Fresh scent is 1:45. The Fresh scent got the worst time. The average time for the Vanilla is 0:47:05. The Vanilla got the best time. The Carpet scent got 1:37:05 for a average.The Febreze got an average of 1:18. The no-smell test got an average of 1:25.

Conclusion

This experiment was designed to test if air fresheners in the room affected how well a person could remember matching pairs of cards. The results show that the Fresh smell had the best time. Over all smell affects memory, but not in a good way.I know that smell doesn’t help memory because while they were matching the cards the scent probably distracted them from finishing the task at hand. It was probably more relaxing, but when you're trying to to do something it’s hard to be relaxed. It shows that smell does affect memory, but only certain kinds. If the smell is too strong it will distract instead of help.

Discussion

The experiment question was “Does smell affect memory?” The experiment results answered the question and the answer is “ not in a good way.” It was hypothesis was that the no-smell will affect memory the most, and the carpet smell is the worst smell that I am going to test. In the experiment there were 2 trials for every smell. The vanilla had the best average and the Fresh smell had the worst average. Most of the averages had at least 1:00 in them besides the vanilla scent that got 0:47 for an average.
The results happened because research shows that sometimes a scent could bring back a memory of something from the past. At the same time though, a scent could distract them by having them thinking about what that scent is or if they remember it from something then they will start think of the memory. The problems were trying to find the scents. It took the scientist a while to try and get them for the experiment.
The other problem was that in the experiment the two scientist decided that they wanted to do the experiment by themselves.The experiment was conducted with a ipod touch for filming the experiment. And a timer app on the ipod to have the exact time that they stopped. This experiment can be used for when someone has to study for a big test and they accidentally spilled something. It was more that the scientist was curious about then a real problem in the world. Other experiments that follow could be; How does smell affect memory, which smell helps the most.

Background Research

"Olfactory Memory." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 14 Mar. 2013. Web. 21 Mar. 2013.

"Does Smell Affect Memory?" WikiAnswers. Answers, n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2013. <http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Does_smell_affect_memory>.

"SMELL AND MEMORY." SMELL AND MEMORY. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2013. <http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro00/web2/Ito.html>.

"How Smell Works." HowStuffWorks. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2013. <http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/human-biology/smell3.htm>.

References

Abstract

The purpose of the experiment was to see if smell affected memory and it was hypothesized that the carpet smell will affect memory the most, and the no-smell is going to have the worst results. The experiment was done with a deck of cards, 4 different smells in a can and two tests for each smell. There were cards from 2-Ace and there was two sets of them set up in rows of 5 by 6. The results were that the vanilla smell got the best results and the and the fresh smell got the worst. The answer to my question was “smell does affect memory, but not in a positive way.